Shimla, July 17 (IANS) The ED arrested three accused in connection with a cryptocurrency scam in which they defrauded over 2.4 lakh investors, including those in Himachal Pradesh, of nearly Rs 500 crore by promising high returns, an official said on Friday.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Shimla Sub-Zonal Office, arrested Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur, and Abhishek Sharma under Section 19(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, said the ED official.
The ED initiated an investigation based on FIRs registered by the police in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab against Subhash Sharma and other key conspirators, the ED said in a statement.
The accused operated multiple fictitious investment platforms, including Korvio, DGT, Hypenext, and A-Global, to defraud the public by luring investors with promises of high and assured returns.
Investigations by the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and under the PMLA have revealed that in 2018, Subhash Sharma, in connivance with co-accused, including Hem Raj, Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur, Abhishek Sharma, and others, launched a cryptocurrency-based multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme.
The scheme was launched through an online platform designed to facilitate controlled operations and large-scale investor enrolment. The platform was subsequently migrated to foreign servers hosted on DigitalOcean and operated through domains such as korvio.io and voscrow.com, the ED said.
The accused induced members of the public to invest in “Korvio Coin (KRO)” by making false promises of assured high returns, conducting misleading promotional seminars, manipulating token values, and introducing new tokens to sustain a Ponzi structure, wherein funds collected from new investors were used to pay returns to earlier investors, the ED said.
To conceal the fraudulent activities, digital records and domain data were deleted. However, recovered digital evidence has revealed that more than 2.48 lakh users fell victim to the fraud, with total transactions exceeding $219 million, resulting in an estimated loss of Rs 500 crore for innocent investors.
The ED investigation revealed that Milan Garg was one of the principal masterminds and the technical architect behind the fictitious cryptocurrency schemes, namely Korvio/Voscrow, Hypenext, and A-Global.
He developed and controlled these platforms, managed cryptocurrency wallets, supervised the migration of investors across platforms, routed investor funds, facilitated the conversion of cash into cryptocurrencies, and exercised overall control over the technical and financial operations of the fraudulent schemes.
The ED investigation revealed that Sukhdev Thakur and Abhishek Sharma were among the earliest promoters of the fictitious cryptocurrency scheme Korvio/Voscrow and played a pivotal role in mobilising investors by making false assurances of high returns.
They collected substantial amounts of cash from investors and delivered the same to the Juneja family, namely Vijay Juneja and Masoom Juneja, as well as other co-conspirators, on the directions of Subhash Sharma, the mastermind of the cryptocurrency scam, who is presently absconding, the ED said.
They earned significant commissions from the scheme and acquired beneficial interests in immovable properties derived from the Proceeds of Crime, including a 10 per cent beneficial interest of Sukhdev Thakur and a 5 per cent beneficial interest of Abhishek Sharma in Juneja Square, a property acquired from the Proceeds of Crime.
The ED investigation revealed that Sukhdev Thakur operated bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets through which funds related to the scam were routed.
The bank account of Abhishek Sharma also reflected substantial financial transactions with entities and individuals involved in laundering the Proceeds of Crime through cryptocurrency and real estate projects/companies, the ED said.
Since Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur, and Abhishek Sharma were in judicial custody in the predicate offence, the Directorate of Enforcement filed a production application before the PMLA Court, Shimla, the ED said.
Pursuant to the production warrants, the Directorate of Enforcement arrested all three accused under Section 19(1) of the PMLA, 2002, and produced them before the PMLA Court, Shimla.
The Special Court (PMLA) thereafter granted 12 days’ custody of the accused to the ED, Shimla, for further investigation into the total quantum of Proceeds of Crime generated and laundered through the cryptocurrency fraud.
Earlier, the ED, Shimla Sub-Zonal Office, had also arrested Hem Raj and Masoom Juneja for money laundering in the present case.
–IANS
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